Wool and whimsy in the frozen North.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the April Nerd Wars Challenges were announced a few days ago and I lost no time getting started. Here’s a list of my plans:

Giving Geeks(Japan Earthquake/Tsunami Relief): Already done- I won one of the auctions in the CPAAG Action Auction for Japan and donated the amount that I bid to the Search Dog Foundation to help train dogs to find missing people.Intellectual (Pi): Froot Loop socks! Yep, one is already done and the other is nearing the heel flap.

Nerd Culture (Reading): This one is done, too. I made Arden mitts for Cory and embroidered some symbols from Unitology (Dead Space game and novels) on the palms. Cory asked for “magic symbols” on the palms, so this worked for that and also made the project fit into the reading challenge. The symbols are his initials.

Scientific (Deep Sea): I’m knitting Celaeno in some Yarn Pig I have in Midnight Sky, with silver-lined turquoise beads to represent bioluminescent creatures in the deep areas of the ocean.Technical (Size): For this you’re supposed to scale something you’ve already made. I’m probably just going to make a minifoppy, but if I have time I might make a small version of the clapotis I made for my wedding.Team Spirit (WIPs): My husband will be so happy- an excuse to finish his socks! I might also try to finish this lovely scarf I started ages and ages ago.

To be honest, for a while after finishing them I didn’t want to look at them. I was so sick of this project that all I could feel was immense relief that I was DONE.

But the more I look at them, the more I love them.

After finishing those, I realized that it was March 9th and I hadn’t finished a single thing that I could turn in for Nerd Wars (well, I made pieces for something, but I haven’t actually done the… event… yet, so I can’t turn that in) so I whipped up a quick little toy. One of the challenges was “In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb” and the parameters were to either make, from your team’s fandom, an animal or something with lion and lamb like qualities. I chose the latter and made a creature from Earthbound (Mother 2 in Japan) known as a Foppy.

I think he’s very cute. He’s only about two inches tall and maybe two and a half inches wide, and took maybe 45 minutes tops.

In non-knitting news, my birthday party was last Saturday, and my birthday itself on Monday! I had a wonderful party and an even better birthday. The big exciting news is that on my birthday, I finally went and took (and aced) my driver’s permit exam. I never learned to drive as a teen and since I became an adult haven’t needed to learn, but I decided that at 25 years old it was finally time. I’ve done the “slow-circles-in-a-parking-lot” thing twice now, and this weekend we’re going to go find a long stretch of empty country road to tool around on. It’s harder than it should be because our car is a manual transmission, but I think I’ll get it eventually.

Here are some photos from the party!

The chocolate layer cake and pecan pie I baked for the party

The guests, minus myself (behind the camera), my husband, and my brother (both off buying pizzas). From left to right that’s Kiah, my sister Kristen and my nephew Elliot, Nicole, Nick and Marie, Kate’s face, and Janelle’s legs and torso

The best photo of my husband ever taken

Nicole and I tentatively trying pieces of a bacon/maple cupcake my sister brought- it was actually pretty ok

And I’d share our bananagrams silliness with you, but I didn’t get any clear photos of word selections that DIDN’T involve parts of the anatomy or swears. My friends are an interesting bunch! In any case, it was the best party I’ve had in a long, long time.

This morning, after I had my breakfast, I decided to sit down and crank out the creeper toy my husband has been asking me to make him for months. For those who do not play Minecraft, creepers look like this.

They’re terrifying because they don’t make any noise, so you can’t hear if they’re nearby; they don’t burn in daylight like some of the other enemies in the game, so they can sneak up on you anywhere; and if they get close enough to you, they hiss loudly and then explode. One exploding creeper can kill you if you aren’t careful, so they’re an annoying and frightening enemy. However, they can also be pretty hilarious, so Cory wanted one. He picked out the yarn a while ago, so all I had to do was come up with a pattern and whip one up.

Minicreeper is about 4 or 5 inches tall, and I crocheted it using a size E hook.

I think it came out rather well. It now lives on one of Cory’s speakers, and he loves it, so it’s a win, I think. I also turned it in for Nerd Wars under the team spirit challenge.

Speaking of Nerd Wars, I’m about 1/3 done with my second project… my Traveling Woman shawlette, made with Dream in Color Starry. I call it my Space Traveling Woman, because it really looks like a starry night sky. I’m making this for the scientific challenge, the theme of which is Nebula. This is my inspiration image.

And here’s the shawl so far.

The color is a little off, there- it’s a bit darker than that in real life- but you can see how it’s blue and purpleish and sparkly. I have some pinky-purple AB-coated beads that will go on the lace section, as well.

I fully intended to spend, if not all of work, at least the entire evening working on my Aeolian shawl. Unfortunately, due to several things, I only ended up getting a few hours of sleep last night. I was dead tired all day long (still am- about to go to bed now) and just couldn’t focus enough to even think about lace. Tomorrow should be better, as I don’t have work and can sleep in as long as I need to to really be refreshed. I’ll post photos once I get a few more rows done.

Instead of knitting, Janelle and I went to her place (after taking care of my sister’s dog and cat- we’re petsitting for the weekend) and played Rock Band 2. There are some neat songs, but the nice thing is that you can (at least on the PS3) upload all the old Rock Band 1 songs to this version and play anything from either game. Kind of a neat feature, that.

So, last night, I cast on for my Deep in the Forest Mittens. As you can see by the pattern, this is a heavy colorwork pattern- at some points it switches colors nearly every stitch. Now, I could have chosen to go with what I did on the mittens I made for my friend Autumn, and hold one color in each hand… but my darling husband got me this knitting thimble in my Christmas stocking last year, and I wanted an excuse to use it! However, it has to be used on your left hand- you have to knit solely Continental to use it. While I technically can knit Continental, I’m an English style knitter and have been since day one. This has been… an issue.

Since my tension changes when I knit Continental, I decided that I should probably knit the whole mittens that way. My hands aren’t used to the position and movements, so they’re getting very sore- especially the tip of my left middle finger, which the right needle rubs on every stitch. It gets sore and then numb and then I have to stop knitting. I’ve also been going very slowly, but the biggest issue… purling. Purling Continental is, to put it nicely, a big freaking hassle. Supposedly once you’re used to it, it’s much faster than English, but as yet… a single purl row is taking me upwards of 10 minutes. I feel like I’m just learning to knit again. Talk about frustrating.

Today, I may knit on those, but I may decide to spin or play the Sims 3. I should probably start spinning that silk, but the patch for the Sims that I’ve been waiting for, that makes it so you really can turn off “story progression” (the function that allows the families you aren’t playing to keep living and making choices and moving and things, all on their own) just came out, I’ve been wanting to play that again. Then again, I suppose I could do multiple things. What an idea, right? Shocking.

I had a really boring day, today. Work was pretty dead, and what work I had to do was dull. My boss was around all day so I couldn’t knit at all. When I got home, I played Discworld for a while (an old playstation game, great fun if you’re a Pratchett fan, great confusion if you aren’t) and then recorded the podcast. I just finished editing that, and it’s uploading now… so that was the entirety of my day.

I got stuck in Discworld a few times. It’s a good game, but a few of the things you have to do are completely unintuitive, and sometimes you have to click on just the right spot to get the interaction to work. For instance, to get the “magic coil”, you have to go to the barber, talk to the lady in the chair after you “look” at her hair curler, distract the barber with thoughts of his true love, and then while he’s distracted (about 5 seconds) use a particular item to pickpocket not the barber himself, but his pocket, which is a very small area on his torso. Rather annoying, but as I said the game manages to be really fun anyway. It has that essential Pratchettyness to it that makes it hilarious dispite its shortcomings.

Fraid I haven’t got much more to talk about, really. I will try to have a better post tomorrow, but I did want to let you all know that Episode 5 is in fact up. It’s long this time, lots to talk about, but I think it’s interesting anyway. Heh.

So, I’m playing Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. I’m sure I’ve mentioned. For most of the game up to the point where I am now (about half) I didn’t have any kind of guide or walkthrough, except to get through the stupid temple (the timed one with the invincible enemies, remember?). However, Janelle brought over her boyfriend’s copy of the guide… and I found out something truly irritating.

In the game, there are three fairies. One of power, one of courage, and one of wisdom (if you know your Zelda, it’s like the triforce, only… fairies). You collect gems for each one, and when you have 10 of a type you can “upgrade” that fairy, giving you extra powers. For example I just upgraded my fairy of power and now my sword does more damage. At the moment, I have 10 power gems, 6 courage gems, and 7 wisdom gems.

According to the guide, if I’ve collected all possible gems by this point in the game, I should have 11 power gems, 10 courage gems, and 10 wisdom gems… and therefore have upgraded all three fairies.

$&@)@$!!! I have looked through the guide over and over trying to figure out which ones I have missed, and I can’t find them anywhere! All I can think is that they’re mouldering in some temple somewhere, and even though I thought I got that one, I somehow missed it. Grah! I don’t care. I’m gonna keep going anyway. Blar. Eventually, someday when I’m bored, I’ll hunt down the other gems. Today, I just wanna go to the dang Goron temple already.

In non video game news, I’m just about to the gusset on baudelaire #2. I decided that instead of working on these at the retreat, I’m going to finish them before the retreat, and cast on a new cardigan… this one, to be specific, with that denim patons classic wool I bought after Christmas. Sorry that link is ravelry only, but the cardigan pattern is only hosted there. In any case, my current plan goes like this– gusset and start heel turn tomorrow, finish heel and start leg Weds, finish leg and start ribbing Thurs, finish ribbing and bind off in the car Fri on the way up. Totally doable.

ps! Guys! We hit 100 downloads on the podcast! Also I’m putting up a podcast page with links for those not subscribed on itunes. Look to the upper right sometime tonight.